


The Conditions of Change

by WritingIsMyCoffee



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Anxiety, Blupjeans are parents to Ango AU, F/M, Gen, Light Angst, mainly fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 12:24:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14237253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingIsMyCoffee/pseuds/WritingIsMyCoffee
Summary: Angus McDonald has never lived under a roof with two parental figures before, let alone never have to worry about fending for himself on a daily basis.Or: Angus learns what it's like to be a son.





	The Conditions of Change

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this immediately after reading the update to Heartstrings by Weevilo707 because I was having EmotionsTM and I needed to be relieved of them. Sorry if this is a Hot Mess since I wrote it so quickly.
> 
> This fic is based around the same AU but I had Lup and Barry simply adopt Ango bc I wasn't comfortable writing/mentioning any "woo-hoo" themes (if you catch my Sims reference)

Life for Angus McDonald after The Day of Story and Song has been nothing if not expeditious.

From the moment The Hunger was defeated, it seems as if he has been bouncing from one major chance to another. There was the day he left the moonbase, his first solid home for almost a decade, and immediately had to start writing lesson plans for Lucas Miller’s new university. Then came signing up for the soccer team and making new friends and burying old ones they had all lost to the very being that had nearly destroyed their plane. Seldom does he feel like he has ever gotten a chance to properly adjust to all the fresh perspectives of being a little kid who also teaches college-like lectures on a weekly basis.

Some could see his views on this as abnormal, and yes, Angus would say those people are right. In fact, he knows of the direct root that all of his conflicted feelings come from: forgetting his parents ever existed.

By far the biggest change in Angus’ life has been moving back in with his parents, and an even arguably bigger change would be remembering them in the first place. After nearly twelve years of being raised by his elderly adoptive grandfather (who Angus found himself taking care of more than he was to him later on in his years), to the many police forces who took him under his wing, to suddenly have a stable parental source in his life is astounding.

Stable…might be a stretch, though.

The day Angus leaves the moon base, his parents are the ones who carry his belongings for him. Well, okay, just Barry but Lup is able to cast a fairly impressive Bigby’s Hand to handle the rest. He barely does any work, just walking silently as his parents discuss how quickly they were able to buy a little plot of land near the remains of Raven’s Roost, how soon the expect to be able to build a little house of their own (with heavy help from Magnus, most likely), and various other tangents they eventually bound off of. The utter glee that carries through their voices is heavily palpable, to the point it starts to leave a suffocating aurora around them.

It’s so unnatural to be empty handed, to allow grownups to take on any form of responsibility for him. No matter how small or big it may seem, it just doesn’t feel right. Angus’ fingers twitch with an anticipation he knows he shouldn’t have (or shouldn’t have to have, to put it more accurately). He opens his mouth several times to ask if he can have his belongings back, then closes it with hesitation.

These are his parents. He shouldn’t be feeling so nervous.

Lup’s the first one to sense the anxious vibes radiating off him. Her skeletal face turns behind her shoulder to peek at her son and stays locked onto him. “Angus? You okay, hon?”

 _Hon, short for honey_ , he explains to himself. “Y-Yes, ma’am,” his voice is able to push out of his swelling mouth. Even those few words turns his tongue itchy.

Somehow with a lack of facial features, Lup is able to express an incredible amount of emotions all at once. She places a bony hand on Barry’s shoulder, forcing him to come to a halt, before carefully placing Angus’ stuff down on the soft earth below. Her Bigby’s Hand dispels into thing wisps of green smoke as she turns to fully face her son. “Angus, it’s…if something’s wrong, it’s okay to tell us. We’ll always listen to what you have to say. I know this is…all of this is pretty sudden, so if you want to go back to the moon-“

“No!” Angus blurts before immediately silencing himself again, partly because he’s not entirely sure if his answer conveys his true feelings on the matter. The moonbase was his home. No, it was more than that; it was the place that brought him back to his true family and helped to expand it. It would be so easy right now to ask them to bring him back up there, but after thinking for a moment he continues. “I want to…t-to live with you two. You’re my family, and…I’ve always wanted one.”

Barry smiles at him, an empathetic one where his eyes glass over and the bottom of his lip quivers. Angus can tell his dad is moments away from another breakdown like the several he’s already had before. “We want to live with you too, Angus. B-But if the time’s not right, we understand.”

The stutter in his voice tells Angus if he does go back to the moon, it’ll crush them, no matter how much they truly understand. Despite how foreign the terrain is, Angus musters up the courage to shake his head. “I’m going home with you…dad.”

He adds on his own tearful smile at the end to fully comfort them, even if the terror hasn’t quite left him yet. It’s the final straw that finally gets Barry to cry and soon Angus finds himself in the middle of a parental group hug, his dad tucking him into his chest and his mother hovering closely to his back.

It feels odd, but not a bad odd. It’s rather nice actually, how warm it makes him feel.

They stay there holding onto each other until Barry is able to take a full breath without bursting into another sob. Lup casts another Bigby’s Hand and picks Angus’ stuff back up, offering this time to see if Angus does want to carry something. He settles with taking his knapsack from her, a large enough weight to keep him rooted but small enough to still let his mom take most of the burden for him.

Barry offers him a hand to hold once they start walking again and he takes it, though he notices how clammy both of their palms are.

 

Having Magnus around while their house is being built is the greatest thing to ever happen to Angus, mainly because he serves as the perfect person to help him ease into his new life.

The security officer turned fighter turned hero creates a metaphorical bridge of solidarity on a constant basis whenever he interacts with the three of them. Magnus knows Barry and Lup like the back of his calloused hands (you don’t spend a century with two people and not know everything about them) and interacts with them just like he did back on _The Starblaster_.

Nostalgia-fueled jokes are passed between the three adults of their times together, with the added benefit of Fisher and Jr.’s song to give Angus a point of reference. Laughter fills every quiet span and helps to mask the fear they all have moving on with their lives. The pain they all carry is easily distributed between them, though most of the mourning they all noticeably do by themselves.

It’s a huge help, and soon enough Angus finds himself spending less time at Lucas’ school during renovations and more at the sight of his forever home. His fragile heart, worn by years of isolation and the maturity he was forced to take on, soon finds itself being mended piece by piece.

Though there are setbacks, as all good things come with to balance out the joy and sorrow. Witty comments are said that don’t land well, sleepless nights are spent to the torment of nightmares, and the general uneasiness of everything new just never seems to leave him. No matter what Angus does, he just can’t shake the feelings that this life just isn’t meant for him. At this point, he’s almost a teenager, the jumping point into adulthood.

As his new home is finally completed, he wonders just how many years he truly has left to spend with the innocence he already lost or is he can at all.

 

 His first hug with his mom-his first real hug anyway-is a physical sensation Angus knows he will never forget.

Her arms, longer and no longer incorporeal, wrap around his growing frame and pull him into the most tender hug he has ever had the chance to experience. The strength she uses to hold onto him is heavy enough to be a struggle to wiggle out of, but why he would ever want to is beyond him. Like a sixth sense, he feels Lup’s walls completely shatter and crumple to the ground as she cries for the first time in thirteen years. Her emotions pool over his like a gentle wave and mix together to form a warm broth of affection.

His head just touches the tip of her chin, but soon enough she presses her face down on the top of her head to bury her tears in his dark locks. Face pressed to her chest, Angus feels every once of warmth in her new body and every jolt that comes with the sobs she racks out of her.

It feels like he’s floating to have all this relief and admiration and _love_ showered on him all at once. It feels like his soul is being blanketed with an impenetrable armor that dares any heartbreak to come near him.

It feels like he’s being hugged by his mom, which in itself is a sensation powerful enough on its own to be described so simply.

So with no reason to keep his own walls up, Angus sobs along with her.

 

“Do you remember when we adopted you?” Lup asks him one night completely out of left field. The three of them are sitting on the floor of their living room, surrounded by a messy sea of playing cards. Barry has been graciously losing four rounds of War to Angus, who is currently sitting in Lup’s lap. She has her head placed on top of his so it’s impossible to look up at her without disrupting the comfortable position they’re currently in.

“I remember the details from Story and Song,” he answers as he places a king down next to Barry’s jack, winning yet another round. “Not the specifics, though.”

Lup hums. “Hmm…well how about we tell you the real deal, Sound good babe?”

“Huh?” Barry blinks, caught in the middle of cleaning up the battlefield of cards. “Oh yeah. Gods, where to begin?”

“How about at the beginning?” Lup suggests as she gives Angus a tight squeeze, rewarding her with a few giggles form her son. “The real beginning.”

“Cycle eighty-four?”

“Cycle eighty-four. You can take it away, sweetie.”

“It was a day I’ll never forget…again,” Barry begins, setting aside the terribly-shuffled playing deck. He scoots closer to his wife and child, close enough to were he can wrap his legs around them. “The cycle wasn’t even that bad. Actually, it was pretty peaceful compared to most of the cycles we were ending up in back then. Most of the areas we found were rural communities with small populations, a good half of them full of peaceful folks. Your mom and I would take a few days to ourselves to walk around the towns looking for the light, and later just to enjoy ourselves. Then one day, we were walking down this dirt path passed a halfling family and your mother stopped me and said-“

“Barry, I wanna start a family with you,” Lup jumps in. Angus can practically see the smile that her words carry. “You should’ve seen how hard your old man started blushing. He was as red as the spicy curry your Uncle Taako makes.”

“Hey, I’m not old!” Barry protests. “But, yeah the blushing was pretty bad. What can I say? It’s not every day the love of your life says they want to make such a life-changing commitment with you.”

“Aww babe.”

“But wait,” Angus interjects. “You two couldn’t have adopted me then. There was the reset.”

“No, that didn’t happen until after the Grand Relics were set loose,” Lup assures him. “We thought at the time it would be the perfect time to bring a baby onboard The Starblaster. And even though it wasn’t, it was the greatest decision we ever made.”

“Your mom wanted it to be a surprise.” Barry starts to chuckle. It’s a deep, hearty laugh that Angus has found to always put him to ease as he becomes more accustomed to it. “Taako lost his mind when we showed up on the ship one day with a baby swaddled in my arms.”

“He was furious we didn’t tell him, so he forced us to make your middle name Taako.”

“Wait, my middle name is Taako?” Angus asks, the thought equally amusing and horrifying to him.

“Even you’re apart of the brand, kiddo,” Lup informs him with a light snicker. “And of course, you’re nerdy name is all your dad’s doing.”

Barry rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, I did that dad thing where you name your kid after your own dad. Sorry champ.”

“Did you just call our son champ?”

“I did, didn’t I?” Barry sighs. “Maybe I really _am_ old…”

Angus laughs. “So…is that it? Is that the story?”

“Well, technically yes,” Barry confirms. “Everything at that time flew by so fast once we did adopt you, and it wasn’t too long before…well…”

Lup reaches over and grasps her husband’s hand, giving it a firm squeeze. “We didn’t get the time together that we wanted, but the time we did spend together? Ango, those were the best days of our lives." She gives him another hug and presses a kiss on top of his head. “You have no idea how happy you made us, and you have no idea how hard it was being away from you for so long.”

“Literally,” Angus adds quietly.

“There were days I was afraid I wasn’t going to find you,” Barry admits solemnly. Angus watches as his head begins to dig farther down towards his chest. “I was afraid that I…that I lost both of you.”

Angus pats his dad’s knee and offers him a familiar empathetic smile. “But you did find us, dad. Don’t worry about that anymore.”

“I know. We’re all together now, and everything’s…everything’s so much better than it was before. But…” Barry trails off, his fears heavily unspoken.

Lup pulls him closer and Barry quickly wraps the two of them into a tight embrace. Angus manages to find a pocket of air as he is sandwiched between his parents. “The past is in the past, even if it sucks today. I’m sorry we don’t have a longer story to tell you, Angus…”

Angus smiles, unable to meet their eyes but fully capable of reaching his parents with his words. “That’s okay, mom. We get to make that story together now.”

It’s sappy as sappy can be, but Angus can practically feel his parent’s wounds heal around him. The night continues on with more stories of baby Angus passed around, as few as there may be be damned. It’s late when they all eventually fall asleep on the living room floor, comfortably snuggled up next to each other.

Life changes just as suddenly as the weather and is guaranteed to just as much as the seasons. Angus isn’t sure when his views of domesticity were flipped completely upside down and idea of parental figures didn’t shake him to his boots.

Whenever it was, when Angus wakes up in the morning to soft sunlight peeking in through the windows and to the peaceful forms of his parents, he thinks this is a change that happened just when it needed to.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey thank you for reading. I hope you have a wonderful day :)


End file.
